Rhapsody at Sea

Monday July 8

Don't get the wrong idea: Rhapsody is the name of our ship (Royal Caribbean). The only other cruises I have taken were on rivers in much smaller boats (though the Danube and Yangtze do count as major rivers) so I was not really prepared for the luxury of a stateroom with beds and a couch and a balcony with chairs and a table. We are on the port side of the vessel, which means we have shore views the whole way down the coast. As I look out (from the Internet center on the same side) there are snow-capped Alaskan peaks at a distance that is hard to determine. I am guessing about ten miles.

The cruise got off on a bad foot. We left the harbor right on time, had our life jacket drill and went to dinner. Just as we were leaving dinner Chris noted that the boat appeared to be stopping, and before long we could see that we were turning around and heading back up Resurrection Bay towards Seward. It turned out someone on board needed medical attention. We went most of the way back, but ended up turning the poor man & family over to a tugboat that came out to meet us. Of course there was much conjecture about the problem, and we guessed a heart attack, but the person was removed on a backboard, so one might think he fell. The captain explained why we were turning back, but alas no word today on the condition of the poor passenger.

Today is a full day "at sea" with the promise of moving near the coast to see some glaciers. The captain says our delayed departure may affect our ability to do this but that he is "putting the pedal to the metal" to get us there. Chris remarked that was the strategy of the Titanic, but for now we are all under control.

I wrote a nasty comment on my evaluation form because at night they turn the library into the cigar room. What, I ask, were they thinking? Don't they know about second hand smoke! In truth the library is disappointing, with virtually no books on Alaska, natural history and the like, although imponderably quite a few on Hawaii. Luckily I have quite a handful that I acquired in the various bookstores in Fairbanks and Anchorage.

Yesterday afternoon we went to the local museum in Seward. It was described in the guidebooks as a "grandmother's attic" sort of place, and indeed they were right, although the peg-board display walls had a sort of fifties look. There were lots of newspaper clippings from local papers and various artifacts given by local families.

I was pleased at the large display on the origin of the Alaskan flag. The design was a result of a competition which was won by a native American boy who happened to be an orphan living in an orphanage in Seward. He had the unlikely name of Bobby Benson (not your basic Tinglit root words..) and it is a beautiful flag. It is a field of dark blue with seven stars representing outlining the Big Dipper and then the north star in the upper right. It reminds me of the history of the Vietnam Memorial, also the result of a competition. How fitting that the flag should have been designed in an anonymous competition by a native boy.

Another fascinating item in the exhibit (though not Alaska per se) was a turn-of-the century US passport which identified a man and merely added (traveling with wife) -- it did not include her name at all.

Well the captain just came on and said we were heading toward the glacier by dead reckoning. I thought that was what mariners like Christopher Columbus used. Wouldn't you think we were using GPS? Oh well, that's all from the high seas.

The Hubbard Glacier is six miles across (we see about three miles here) and 150 feet high. Without plants or animals, it is hard to get a perspective of the size.